Early Settlers Knotts Island and Lower Princess Anne County

Many geographical changes have occurred in the areas of our
waterways including Knotts Island Bay, Currituck Sound, Back Bay
and its land areas of Cedar Island, Ragged Island and Long Island.
During the seventeenth century and eighteenth centuries, sailing
ships came through (old) Currituck Inlet and brought our early
white settlers to these islands and lower Princess Anne County. In
the seventeenth century location of the (old) Currituck Inlet
would have given these settlers a channel of navigation to all the
waterways of Carolina and up north in Virginia. The inlet gave
opportunity for commerce and travel that would remain accessible
well into the eighteenth century and an early portion of the
nineteenth century.

The first permanent settlement in the region of North Carolina,
in general, has given the nod to Chowan and Nathaniel Batts.
“Batts House” is neatly drawn on the 1657 Comberford Map. He was
most important during that period because of his trade with the
Indians of the Chowan area, and he was the first to carry out such
commercial enterprises.

Our region became really well known to Virginia in 1643 when
Governor William Berkeley brought a major military expedition
against the troublesome Indians. One column was commanded by
Thomas Dew and sailed through Currituck Inlet to the Albermarle
Sound.

The most important early settler for historical records of Knotts
Island was George Bullock, who moved to the Island at the same
time that Nathaniel Batts moved to Chowan. This fact makes Knotts
Island one of the oldest settlements of North Carolina. As early
as 1657, Knot Isle appears on the Comberford map entitled “A Map
of the South Part of Virginia.” The map has always been an
important historical document giving credence to the settlement of
Nathaniel Batts on the Chowan River; however, what has been
ignored is that Knotts Island appears there as well.

George Bullock gave a deposition in the Virginia and North
Carolina Boundary case in 1711. His age at the time was
seventy-six and his sworn statement “that about fifty years ago I
came from Elizabeth River in Virginia to Knotts Island and have
lived therein ever since,” thus putting Bullock on Knotts Island
in 1661. One of his most interesting remembrances was that he and
others of the area were pressed into service of Carolina because
of that colony’s engagement in a war with the Tuscarora Indians.
Those men claimed to be inhabitants of the area known as “Knott’s
Plain” and the Back Bay. Thereby creating substantial evidence for
even the most skeptical critic to show that those early settlers
were calling significant geographical features by names we still
know today.

Those early settlers were apparently confused as to which
government they owed their allegiance and their important taxes.
Bullock reported that settlers “yielded readily their obedience
and paid their taxes to Carolina” but that “they also covered
their bases by surveying and patenting their lands” under the
government of Virginia, fearing that they might lose their most
important legacy. Such political disputes and land ownership
questions would carry over well into the eighteenth century when
the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina would
finally demand attention.

We can see that Knotts Island and Lower Princess Anne County was
emerging as an important settlement as far back as 1661. Now the
question often comes up as to how Knotts Island got its name. This
historian, and those who have tried to unravel this mystery before
me, all must admit they are still not sure. It has commonly
believed that the name of the island is somewhat related to the
connection with the Knott family of Virginia, an easy family to
trace with its arrival in the colony as early as 1623. By 1635,
James Knott had received a land grant in Elizabeth City County in
which Knotts Island was located in the early 1600’s. The easy
explanation is that one of the family members was granted the
island and gave his name to it. Unfortunately, this is not the
case in research done so far. The family has not been traced
directly to the island. The family also included many well-known
sea captains, one of whom had settled in Norfolk by 1685. It may
be that one of them came through the area prior to 1657, but that
will remain mere supposition. This historian’s more logical reason
is that if one looks at a map, especially those printed in the
colonial period, Knotts Island looks like a knot tied on board the
sailing ships of the day. A knot was a simple term understood by
the sea captains and cartographers who were drawing the most
historical documents of the seventeenth century. It has been
through careful examination of these maps that I have discovered
what I believe to be, the true Knotts Island of that era.

From 1661 to the dawn of the eighteenth century, Knotts Island
and lower Princess Anne County experienced tremendous growth. It
was in this final stage of settlement that names we now know of
first families of Knotts Island and Lower Princess Anne County
were established. Through careful study of land patent records,
the grant to Patrick White in 1682 establishes the White family as
one of the most important early settlers. People were granted land
by various methods at that point in time. They might transfer from
England various family members and receive land in payment for
such transactions, or they might acquire property directly from
royal patents.

Entrepreneurs or rulers back in England believed that new regions
would be settled quickly and that persons residing in these
frontier outposts would feel a special kinship with their highly
desirable land acquisitions. At the time of a grant, one had to
build a house and raise crops or the patent/grant reverted back to
the crown.

Other people granted land during the 1600’s included Richard
Whicker (Wicker), Rachel Cornelius, Mr. Evan Jones, James Heath,
Michael Jones, John Legatt, Joseph Perry, Michael Jones and Peter
Malbone. Originally from Wales, Thomas Morris and son Josiah
sailed, from Bermuda, through Old Currituck Inlet and settled near
what is known today as Morris Neck in the lower section of
Virginia Beach. And, of course, George Bullock was still around in
1682 and covering his bases as he would claim to do in 1710. Land
was most important to these transported Englishmen who found
themselves permanently settled on the shores of Currituck Sound
and Back Bay. Land grants are the one record of themselves that
have remained and now enable us to understand them more completely
even today.

New discoveries of facts and sources through continued historical
research will always be on the horizon and reinterpretations will
hopefully shed new light on such an interesting time in our
history.